Download A Quick History of Ancient Greece

A Quick History of Ancient Greece
by Neil Blackmore
Contents
Prehistoric Greece
Archaic Greece
Classical Greece
Hellenistic and Roman Greece
Greek Society
Greek Culture
Ancient Greece At War
Famous Ancient Greeks
Quick Timeline
Copyright © 2016 by Neil Blackmore/Quick Histories
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First published 2016
Why I Started Quick Histories
I am someone who always understood history. As a child, I pored over history books
and eventually I studied history at university. When I became a writer, I published
historical novels.
Friends would ask me to explain things from history to them and I found that I
could. But often people have confided in me that they love history but they do not
always understand or retain it.
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Map
The Greek city-states and tribal kingdoms
Greek colonisation of the Mediterranean in the Classical and Hellenistic
periods
The Hellenistic World - the culturally Greek empires that followed
Alexander the Great
Prehistoric Greece
In this chapter, you will learn about the earliest Greek civilisations, the Minoans
and the Mycenae, the coming of new technologies to Greece and the mysterious,
sudden end of the cultures of Prehistoric Greece.
The Neolithic Revolution - the last part and high point of the Stone Age, during
which technological advance began to speed up considerably - reached Greece and
the Balkans around the 7th millennium BCE. Some Neolithic communities in Greece,
such as at Sesklo, were living in heavily fortified settlements of 3,000–4,000 people.
The Greek Neolithic era ended with the arrival of the Bronze Age from Anatolia and
the Near East, by the end of the 28th century BCE. With the advent of bronze, the
durability and performance of farming and military equipment and the production of
luxury items such as jewellery advanced quickly. The Bronze Age's innovations were
very important for the development of trade.
Around the same time, the first significant civilisation in the wider region was
emerging across the Mediterranean in Egypt. Trade expanded internationally during
the period, opening societies to cultural exchange with neighbours from more
advanced civilisations.
2600 CE The Minoans And The Mycenaeans
The first major civilization in Europe was that of the Minoans, a Bronze Age culture
on the island of Crete which survived more than a thousand years from around 2600
BCE.
The Minoans developed a mysterious and beautiful artistic tradition, particularly
focused on painted wall frescoes and delicate, painted pottery, often focused on their
"matriarchal" religion of different goddesses. Their mythology was filled with strange
creatures, such as bull-headed half-men, which later become recognisable as the
Minotaur myths. The story of the Minotaur was usually associated with the Minoan
city of Knossos on Crete.
They also developed their architecture into column-based styles of villas and temples
that would greatly influence Greek buildings in the eras which followed.
The militaristic Mycenaean culture followed the Minoans for another 500 years.
Probably conquering Crete from the Minoans, the Mycenaeans first adopted and
then developed Minoan culture, spreading it from Crete to mainland Greece and
Turkey.
Major Mycenaean cities included Athens, Thebes and Knossos. Although Minoan and
Mycenaean cultures were advanced and urban, their writing systems have not been
decoded. This means that these civilisations are regarded as "prehistoric", that is,
from a time before the existence of written documentation, the basis of history.
But the Bronze Age cultures of the eastern Mediterranean appear to have been
disrupted violently in the 12th and 11th centuries BCE. It is not well understood why
the culture ended, and it has been suggested that a mix of environmental,
demographic and military factors might have impacted it.
This ushered in a brief period of disruption and decline named the Greek Dark Ages
between about 1000 and 800 BCE.
Quick Summary
- The first Greek civilisations, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans, developed a rich
culture, with strong artistic and religious traditions.
- The writing system of the civilisations has not been decoded, therefore they are
considered "prehistoric", that is, dating from before historical records
- After 1500 years, sudden and possibly violent change swept the Mycenaeans
away, and ushered in a period of decline known as the Greek Dark Ages.
Archaic Greece
In this chapter, you will learn about the sudden and unique revival of civilisation in
Ancient Greece, the rapid development of art, literature and science, and the diverse
and often violent world of the different Greek city-states
800 BCE The Revival of Greek Civilisation
The Greek Dark Ages had seen a general deterioration in the markers of civilisation.
Urban life had declined. Palaces and temples fell into disuse and complex building
virtually ceased. However, during this period, the post-Mycenaean world of the
Greek city-states emerged.
The existence of and relationships between these city-states became a defining
characteristic of Ancient Greek history.
Eventually, Greece stabilised. Trade recovered, which led to increased cultural
exchange across the Mediterranean. This economic revival created such wealth that it
produced a revival of art and building too. Both cemeteries such as the Kerameikos in
Athens or Lefkandi and sanctuaries such as Olympia and Delphi were lavishly built
and decorated from around this time.
The development of writing had a major impact from these early centuries of the first
millennium BCE. A new alphabet system was adopted from the Greeks' trading
partners, the Phoenicians.
The Greeks quickly became one of the most inventive early adopters of literacy
culture, and a dazzling tradition of written entertainment and intellectual discovery
rapidly emerged.
Quick Biography: Who was Homer?
Homer has been known throughout history as the author of the Iliad and the
Odyssey, two of the most important works of all literature, not just ancient Greek
writing. He was held by the ancient Greeks as the first and greatest of the epic poets
and his work was closely studied through medieval Islam and Renaissance Europe.
It is not known when he lived, or even if he lived at all. The fifth-century BCE
historian Herodotus estimated that Homer lived 400 years before his own time,
around 850 BCE or later.
Homer is described in Plato's Republic as the first great writer of tragedy, and his
influence on all subsequent writers seen as enormous even then. His influence
extended far and wide, accounting for half of all Greek writing finds in papyrus in
Ancient Egypt (where Greek was widely understood).
Today, scholars dispute whether Homer was a real person at all, or whether a single
person was responsible for both The Odyssey and The Iliad. It is unlikely the texts
were written down for many generations after composition and so were subject to
change.
Even the Ancient Greeks themselves debated when Homer had lived, although they
generally accepted he did. However, it remains a tantalising possibility that one of
the most important writers in all human history may not have existed at all.
800 BCE The City-States and Kingdoms of Ancient Greece
As noted, Ancient Greece almost always consisted of several hundred relatively
independent city-states (poleis) which, despite near-constant warfare, rarely made
much effort to unite. This was in sharp contrast to many other ancient civilisations Persia, Egypt, Rome - which sought to create large, centralised empires.
The mountainous and island terrain almost certainly contributed to this. But Ancient
Greek society was tribal in origin and despite many cultural and linguistic
similarities, there seems to have been little pressure to find a common "national"
identity, as in those other civilisations.
This was exacerbated when Greek settlers moved to new colonies around the
Mediterranean and established virtually independent new poleis more interested in
trade than political control from home. Ancient Greece just never seemed to
transcend this disunity or regionalism, or even particularly seem to want to.
The Major Greek City-States and Kingdoms
Athens (1796–338 BCE)
Sparta (11th century – 195 BCE)
Corinth (7th century – 337 BCE)
Thebes (? – 338 BCE)
Eretria (? – 338 BCE)
Chalcis (? – 338 BCE)
Syracuse (734–212 BCE)
Kingdom of Mycenae (c. 2110 – c. 1100 BCE)
Kingdom of Epirus (? – 167 BCE), later Macedon(808–146 BCE)
Alexandrian Empire (334–323 BCE)
Kingdom of Cyrene (632–30 BCE)
750 BCE Colonisation Outside Greece
During the Archaic period, the population of Greece increased by as much as tenfold,
an astonishing level of growth which suggests a wealthy and well-fed population.
However, Greece could not support such huge increases. This created significant
population pressure and encouraged emigration. From about 750 BCE the Greeks
began 250 years of expansion across the Mediterranean.
To the east, the Aegean coast of Asia Minor was colonized first, followed by Cyprus
and the coasts of Thrace, the Sea of Marmara and south coast of the Black Sea.
Eventually Greeks reached as far northeast as present-day Ukraine. To the west the
coasts of Illyria, Sicily and Southern Italy were settled. Greek colonies were also
founded in Egypt and Libya.
This process eventually spread Greek culture as the primary cultural and intellectual
force of the ancient Mediterranean and Middle East.
Quick Question: What was the history of the original Olympic Games?
The most widely accepted date for the start of the Ancient Olympics is 776 BCE.
Inscriptions in stone at Olympia list the winners of a later running competition,
noting it was held every four years, starting in that year.
As well as running events, the Games featured a pentathlon, wrestling, boxing, and
equestrian events. Competitors travelled to Olympia from different Greek cities to
compete. Winners became heroes, admired and immortalized in poems and statues.
The Olympics were not just athletic competitions. They were events of great religious
and political importance, with ritual sacrifices to Zeus, the primary god of Ancient
Greece.
The period of four years came to have such significance in Ancient Greece that it was
known as an Olympiad.
The Games were also part of a cycle of four events, which included the Pythian
Games, the Nemean Games, and the Isthmian Games. But the widely held belief that
Greek cities suspended war during the Games is a modern myth.
The Games reached their zenith in the 6th and 5th centuries BCE. However the
Games may have continued until as late as 393 CE, when the Christian emperor
Theodosius I outlawed them as a pagan ritual, emphasising their religious
importance in Ancient Greece, even after 500 years Roman rule.
600 BCE The Old Systems Break Down
Originally, many Greek city-states, including Athens, had traditional kingships but
during the Archaic period, these forms of government began to change in many though not all - of the poleis.
The power of kings generally declined, first in favour of aristocratic councils of
elders. On occasion, dictators known as "tyrants" seized power and ruled as central,
dominating figures.
When those tyrants fell, kingdoms were often not restored. Instead, republican forms
of government emerged.
One Athenian lawgiver of this era was named Draco. He created a code of law so
harsh that it became notorious and gave us the word "draconian". But Athenians
began to tire of such harshness.
A rising distaste for tyrants led to the creation of alternative systems of selfgovernment, which eventually led to the Athenian-style democracy during the
Classical period.
Quick Question: What was Sparta like?
Sparta was unique in Greece in that its society was focused almost entirely on
military training and excellence. Spartan men underwent rigorous training in a
culture based on the honour of war.
Despite this, Spartan women enjoyed considerably more rights and equality to men
than elsewhere in the classical world. Aristotle actually partially blamed the fall of
Sparta on the freedom enjoyed by its female population.
Sparta, by contrast, had enslaved an entire region of Greece known as Messenia, and
its population lived in perpetual servitude as the helots. Spartan slaves had a
miserable experience and were treated harshly. Every Spartan youth had to kill a
helot as a rite of passage.
Unsurprisingly, the helots often rebelled. Writers from other Greek cities noted how
harshly Spartan slaves were treated.
Sparta is famous for leaving unwanted children (especially girls or weak babies) out
in exposed conditions to die. However, this was not an uncommon practice across
Greece, including Athens, and is a good example of how parents' attitudes to
(especially small) children may change over time.
Quick Summary
- After several centuries of decline, around 800 BCE, Greek society suddenly
revived economically and culturally, including the development of a new writing
system and literature
- Because of geographical and tribal issues, Greek city-states remained disunited
and diverse, preferring to use emigration to create economic and political
opportunities, thus spreading Greek culture far and wide
- The Ancient period saw rapid development in the political culture of Greece, away
from kingship and tyranny, towards republican forms of government, and
eventually democracy, which would be enormously influential.
Classical Greece
In this chapter, you will learn about how during the Classical period, the Greeks
enjoyed both great economic and cultural wealth and near-constant threats of
invasion from Persia. You will also learn about some of the most famous names of
Greek philosophy and what they actually believed.
Quick Question: Did the Greeks "invent" history?
Writing meant that almost all civilisations began to record the events of their time.
These might be incidental recordings in sending tax or war-booty information, or
they might celebrate the great power of kings and emerging empires.
Whilst these writings are useful for history, the Greeks developed history as a literary
and philosophical concept, a meaningful, reflective analysis of the past from which
lessons might be learned. This was a new way of looking at the past.
The fifth-century writer Herodotus is widely known as the "father of history". His
Histories gave detailed analyses of the lives and activities of Persian and Greek
rulers, designed to give valuable moral lessons, to record events so that they would
not be lost, and simply to entertain readers. He used evidence and original sources,
fundamental concepts of history-writing.
Classical Greece was one of the first great ages of history-writing. People began to
write and read history as we do, for its own pleasure and value. The Greeks
"invented" history as we know it today.
500 BCE Classical Greece
The term "Classical Greece", in historical terms, refers specifically to a period of
around 200 years, from roughly 500 BCE to 300 BCE.
This was a period of intense creativity and innovation and intense political pressure
for all of Greece. Much of modern Western intellectual and artistic life derives from
this period.
At the same time, politically, it involved long, grinding external and internal wars,
the extraordinary rise of Alexander the Great and the start of Greece's fading from
the international stage.
In 508 BCE, the Athenian tyrant Hippias was overthrown by Cleisthenes, the "father
of democracy". Over the next year, the city under Cleisthenes introduced a number
of reforms which began to hand power increasingly to the people on the basis of open
selection and duty to one's local area rather than family or tribe. Others point to the
first of a number of Persian invasions in 492 BCE.
507 BCE Athenian Democracy
So, democracy was instituted in Cleisthenes's reforms in 507. The political processes
of Athens began to move away from the tyrannical cliques formed among the city's
aristocracy.
Herodotus wrote: “In a democracy, there is, first, that most splendid of virtues,
equality before the law.”
However, democracy was limited to a small segment of the Athenian population. For
example, in Classical-era Athens had about 100,000 citizens (Athenian citizenship
was limited to men and women whose parents had also been Athenian citizens) and
150,000 slaves.
Out of all those people, only male citizens over 18 were a part of the demos, meaning
only about 40,000 people could participate in the democratic process. It would not
have occurred to Athenians to give women any say, and perhaps the majority of
Athenian adults, in this much-vaunted democracy, were actually slaves.
Nonetheless, this was a hugely influential system of government, not only in our time
but in Ancient Greece too. Several cities experimented with democracy although
none of these left as much historical information as that of Athens.
Quick Biography: Who Was Pericles?
From 460 BCE, Athens was led by one of its most famous ancient citizens, Pericles.
Under his talented and ambitious control, Athens became by far the richest and most
powerful Greek city-state.
Pericles was a populist who sought to radically extend the Athenian democracy to all
persons with Athenian parentage.
A great patron of the arts, Pericles promoted an almost arrogant belief in Athenian
cultural supremacy. His last years saw the outbreak of a lethal conflict with Sparta.
As a result, Pericles's rule is seen as the peak of Athenian confidence and democracy
but also the beginning of its end.
492 BCE The Persian Wars
Although mainly remembered in Europe for its many wars against Ancient Greece,
Persia was one of the most well-run empires of the ancient world with a strong,
centralised administration devolved through to provincial governors.
It had a complex network of well-maintained roads, its own postal system and was
one of the first states to encourage the use of an official language. These were
significant markers of a sophisticated civilisation.
It was founded by Cyrus the Great in the sixth century BCE, and quickly became the
largest empire of ancient history, spanning Eastern Europe to modern Pakistan. It
also occupied parts of Greece.
The Ionian Revolt against Persian rule in Asia Minor began in 499 BCE, supported
by Athens and other Greek cities. This sparked a series of wars between the Greek
cities and Persia, with the first full invasion by the latter in 492 BCE.
In 490 BCE, Darius the Great, having suppressed the Ionian Revolt, sent 100,000
Persians to take Athens, but was defeated at the Battle of Marathon by a Greek army
a fraction of their size.
Sparta at this time was led by a brilliant general-king named Leonidas, who was also
a major opponent of Persian aggression.
Another major invasion in 480 BCE led to the loss of several cities and the
evacuation of Athens. After this, the Greek cities began to cooperate to resist Persian
invasions.
This was known as the Delian, later Hellenic, League. It was generally seen as being
led by Athens in the occasional revivals of aggression that followed in the next
decades.
But when some states, led in another league by Sparta, began to resent Athens' preeminence, this in turn contributed to another great conflict of the era, which
catastrophically ended the Classical period.
431 BCE The Peloponnesian War
In 431 BCE war broke out between Athens and Sparta and its allies. The war was not
really a struggle between two city-states as between the two competing leagues.
The war would last an astonishing 27 years. Although full of reverses of fortune, the
outcome of the war was a total reversal of the political situation in Greece. Athens,
previously the great power of the Greek world, was almost completely subjugated to
Sparta, which dominated Greece into the fourth century BCE.
However, there were more serious outcomes of the grinding, bloody Peloponnesian
War. Much of the Greek economy broke down and some cities, including Athens,
experienced dramatic economic and cultural decline.
Greek society militarised more generally and longer term, Greece entered into a state
of near-permanent military conflict which distracted the city-states from other
issues.
Yet, despite all these pressures, the late fifth and early fourth centuries were a golden
age of Greek philosophy.
Quick Biography: Who Were Plato, Aristotle and Socrates?
No three names are more connected with Greek philosophy, and associated with the
intellectual life of Classical Greece, than Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. In fact, they
were genuinely connected: Socrates was Plato's teacher, and Plato was Aristotle's.
Just to make their influence all the greater, Aristotle was in turn the teacher of
Alexander the Great.
Socrates (c.470-399 BCE) was a brilliant, unusual thinker, who encouraged his
students to question assumptions, especially of those in power. He also encouraged
people to think about their own lives. His most famous quote is perhaps "The
unexamined life is not worth living." He developed a method of questioning, in which
the most basic questions could be used to expose assumptions, hypocrisy and bad
thinking.
However, Socrates was a critic of the Athenian democracy, which he blamed for the
decline of his beloved city. He made many enemies and was convicted of corrupting
the young, his punishment committing suicide by drinking poison.
Plato (c.427-347 BCE) was a talented student of Socrates and his famous Dialogues
record Socrates' brilliant philosophical debating methods. Plato believed in an
eternal soul, and that life is nothing more than the imprisonment of the soul in a
body.
He further outlined the nature of existence as Forms, Ideals, or Ideas (such as
equality or justice). Unlike Socrates, he wrote his ideas down in such works as The
Physics or The Republic, in which he examined humanity, society, philosophy and
morality. His philosophical ideas were hugely influential both in the years after his
own life and throughout much Renaissance and medieval Islamic thought.
Aristotle (384-322 BCE) was also a great writer, although few of his many hundreds
of works survive. Aristotle was more interested in real life than Plato, and saw human
existence as a search for a meaningful, moral life.
Aristotle strongly advocated logic and reason as means for human living, and as
such, became an enormous influence on later medieval Islamic and Enlightenment
European thought. As Alexander the Great's tutor, Aristotle was allegedly the bestpaid teacher in history.
359 BCE The Rise of Macedon
The fourth century BCE saw the dominance of Sparta fade too, and after a period of
Thebes being in control, a northern kingdom named Macedon rose to power.
Macedon was on the fringe of Greece and bordered peoples such as the Paeonians,
Thracians, and Illyrians. In 357 BCE, its king Philip II conquered the Thracian port
city of Amphipolis and so began extending his territory northwards.
The Macedonians also became more politically involved with the southern states.
Meanwhile, Philip developed his army as the pre-eminent fighting force of the
region.
This process continued under Philip's brilliant young son, Alexander the Great.
336 BCE Alexander the Great
After his father's assassination, Alexander continued to carry out the plans of his
father to conquer all of Greece. He did this by both military might and persuasion.
After military victory over Thebes, he personally charmed the people of Athens into
cooperation. This allowed him to focus on his real ambition: the creation of a huge
land empire far beyond Greece.
In 334 BCE, Alexander crossed the Hellespont into Asia. He never returned home.
Conquering the vast Persian empire, Alexander also took Egypt and even invaded
India. More than any other person, he managed to spread Greek culture throughout
the known world, with its influence felt from India to the Atlantic.
Highly educated, Alexander was an unparalleled success as a military leader, never
once losing a battle. He innovated very successfully with military formations such as
the phalanx, was able to spot opportunities for bold actions and inspired intense
loyalty among his troops. These were the cornerstones of his success. He also
founded many cities, most notably Alexandria in Egypt.
Married three times, Alexander's closest companion and probable lover was his male
bodyguard, Hephaestion. Such a relationship would not have been controversial in
classical Greece. After Hephaestion's death, Alexander's mental health may have
begun to fragment. He died soon after in 323 BCE, aged only 33.
With his death, his empire was divided between his generals and the Classical era of
Greece came to an end. What followed was a Greek world focused not on Greece itself
but on the wider, international Hellenistic culture.
Quick Summary
- Classical Greece saw one of the greatest intellectual flowerings not just in Greek,
but world history, with the likes of Herodotus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
developing philosophy, logic, reason and historical study
- At the same time, it was period of invasion, war and instability, which despite the
brief emergence of democracy in Athens, led ultimately to Greece's decline
- The extraordinary career of Alexander the Great and his empire led to Greek
culture become a truly international phenomenon but this again undermined the
centrality of Greece itself to its own civilisation
Hellenistic and Roman Greece
In this chapter, you will learn about the successful spread of Greek civilisation far
beyond Greece itself, establishing its enormous influence on many other cultures.
You will also learn, however, how after Alexander, Greece entered into a decline
that saw it become subject to the attentions of its greatest cultural admirer: Rome.
320 BCE The Hellenistic World Emerges
Alexander's general squabbled over his empire in creating kingdoms for themselves.
The new Greek-ruled empires arose across Egypt and the Middle East, out of the
ashes of Alexander's conquests.
This had real consequences for the Greek city-states. Opportunities for ambitious
men, political, economic or cultural, now lay as much outside Greece as within it.
The two most important of these were Ptolemaic Egypt, ruled by a dynasty called the
Ptolemies, the last of whom was Cleopatra, and the Seleucid Empire, which revived
an independent Persia for several hundred years. However, there were a series of
smaller kingdoms which were Hellenistic or part-Hellenistic in culture as far east as
Afghanistan and India.
Many Greeks migrated to new cities outside Greece like Alexandria and Antioch.
Consequently, the older Greek cities themselves did not recover their status after
endless war, economic turbulence and the rise of Macedon.
Additionally, Greece's old tendency towards localism meant that eventually by the
mid third century, the country had fragmented again. Athens, though it remained the
largest and richest city in Greece, never recovered political control.
Endless warfare continued in a shifting range of alliances in and beyond Greece. Now
Egypt, under the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty, regularly interfered in Greek affairs.
The cultural life of the Hellenistic world was, in some ways, almost identical to that
of Classical Greece. But this was also its great difference.
Classical Greece had been a period of tremendous innovation and intellectual
activity. It was of such importance that Hellenistic culture was far too in awe of that
perfect past. Greek civilisation became as much about honouring the work of its
masters as creating new work.
One area in which Hellenistic civilisation did advance was science. The
mathematician, physicist and astronomer Archimedes lived in the third century BCE.
He is famous for his work calculating pi and his many engineering inventions.
Astronomy and engineering advanced during the period, along with medicine and a
strong interest in scientific method, which proved hugely influential in many
traditions of learning since.
200 BCE Rome Arrives In Greece
Around 200 BCE, the new regional superpower Rome, having more or less broken its
main Mediterranean adversary in the African state of Carthage, turned its attention
to Greece. Ancient Rome hugely admired, and took large parts of its own culture
from, Greek civilisation. Its ambitious rulers wanted to have not just the wealth but
also the cultural resources and prestige of Greece for itself.
During a series of conflicts with Macedon and Persia, Rome became active in Greek
affairs. Finally, Rome declared war on Macedon in 171 BCE, bringing 100,000 troops
into Greece. By 168 BCE, almost all resistance to Rome had collapsed.
In 146 BCE, the Greek peninsula officially became a Roman protectorate. Greece was
now nothing more than a province of Rome
146 BCE Roman Greece
In return for political obedience and compliance with taxation, the Romans left local
administration to the Greeks without changing many traditions. Greece was
generally a loyal subject and wealthy Romans enjoyed visiting Greece for its many
cultural and historical pleasures.
Later Greek men were allowed to become Roman citizens and were gradually drawn
into the life and institutions of the Empire. Eventually, after the fall of Rome in 476,
a part of the Empire survived in the city of Constantinople (modern Istanbul).
This empire, Byzantium, saw itself as the inheritor of both Rome and Greece, and
eventually stopped using Latin in preference for Greek. When Byzantium finally fell
to the Turks in 1453, many great works of Ancient Greek culture were returned to the
west, contributing enormously to the European Renaissance.
Quick Summary
- The Hellenistic period saw the spread of Greek culture across much of the known
world, across Egypt, Persia and most of the Middle East, as far as India
- Rather than extending the innovations of Classical culture, Hellenistic civilisation
was more interested in preserving the glories of the past
- The Greek cities never recovered from chronic war and could not resist the rise of
Rome, and became part of its empire.
Greek Society
In this chapter, you will learn that despite its enlightened reputation, Ancient Greek
society was often not a very liberal or free place, especially for women and slaves.
You will also learn about the cultural and educational world of the Ancient Greeks,
and their - to us - very alien views and rules around sexuality.
Quick Question: Who Were The Barbarians?
The word "barbarian" has descended to us meaning someone without civilisation and
the concept comes to us from the Ancient Greeks. For the Ancient Greeks
themselves, barbarian mean something more specific: anyone who didn't speak
Greek.
To them, other nations' languages sounded like "bar, bar, bar" hence the word.
Therefore, there were many sophisticated, cultured peoples, such as the Persians,
Romans or Egyptians, who were considered barbarians.
Although Greeks were not very concerned with race (their literature rarely refers to
differences in skin colour, for example, in the way that Romans' did not either), they
were very interested in their uniqueness and civilisations and were very snobbish
about their civilisation and language.
The Greeks believed that anyone who belonged to a Greek-speaking society was more
rational than those who did not. They were contemptuous of anyone who drank beer,
wore leg-covering clothes or allowed women freedom.
To the Ancient Greeks, these things were seen as barbarian.
Social structure
Citizenship was an important, defining concept in most Greek city-states. Only free,
land owning, usually native-born men could be citizens and enjoy the privileges and
protections under law.
Unlike Rome, social status did not allow special rights although aristocracies usually
had more political power. People who became rich could move social class, although
education remained an important aspect of social status.
Up to half of all people (more usually, at least a third) living in many cities were
slaves, however. Slaves had no political rights but they had some other rights, with
their owner's permission. They could marry and own property. In Athens, celebrated
for its democratic enlightenment, as many as three out of four adults was a slave.
Sometimes slaves were owned by the city itself and performed public roles. These
"state slaves" usually had the best conditions. Most privately owned slaves were
household servants or labourers, and even poor families might have owned a few
slaves.
Slaves were often non-Greeks and foreigners also could usually not become citizens.
However, despite this and the distinctiveness of their civilisation, Greeks had very
little interest in race. They were much more interested in social class, tribal origin
and educational level.
Slaves' lives, though never good, differed between different cities.
Owners in Athens were not allowed to beat or kill the slaves they owned and often
came to agreements about eventual freedom although someone who had been a slave
could never become a citizen. Meanwhile, as noted earlier, in Sparta, slaves' lives
were particularly miserable and it was a rite of passage for young Spartan men to
catch and kill a helot slave.
Unsurprisingly, slave rebellions were common in Sparta. Perhaps more surprisingly,
the rest of Greece saw very few slave uprisings, suggesting that Greek slavery was
relatively benign and slaves preferred to work their way to freedom
Quick Question: What were the lives of Greek women like?
Women had very few rights in comparison to men, or in comparison to women in
societies, for example Egypt or Rome. They could not hold property, perform public
roles, or appear as witnesses in court. They had no political rights and rarely had any
political power.
Unlike the wives of Roman politicians and emperors, the lives of wives of famous
Greek men are often fairly mysterious. In Athens, which was held to be politically
advanced, women had some of the fewest rights of the entire female population of
Greece.
However, women often performed in religious rites and festivals, especially funerals.
Women could perform senior priestly roles and the role of priestess was one of the
few ways a Greek woman could acquire power or wealth of her own. The female
Oracle at Delphi was among the most powerful non-royal people in the ancient
Mediterranean.
However, other upper-class women led very limited lives. A woman had few
expectations of her husband paying much attention to her, and accepted his sexual
relationships with young men or female courtesans.
Women were encouraged to value friendship and to focus on child-rearing and
direction of slaves. They rarely left the house except for religious reasons or to visit
relations.
In fact, all women were discouraged from appearing much in public, although in
reality, many poorer women had to work, usually in trade or handicrafts. But women
were not fully business owners, except in the business of prostitution, which was
well-established. Women living conventionally were always subjugated to the will of
a father, husband or son.
Generally, an unmarried women was a source of social anxiety. Widows were
encouraged to remarry as soon as possible after a husband's death. A dying husband
might even arrange his wife's next husband for her.
As stated earlier, Spartan women enjoyed considerably more rights than in virtually
every other Greek city, and Aristotle blamed the fall of Sparta on the freedom
enjoyed by its female population.
Quick Biography: Who Was Sappho?
Sappho was a lyric poet who lived around 600 BCE on the Greek island of Lesbos.
She is one of the few Ancient Greek women whose name is well known in our time,
although we actually know very little of her life. She appears to have worked as a
teacher of young women and her poems may have been written as a form of
instruction for girls' educations.
Her poems were designed to be performed as music, her work expressed love for men
and women while also paying homage to the deities of the times. She was hailed as
one of the nine greatest poets of Greece when her work was compiled at the Library
of Alexandria, though most of her work was eventually lost.
Sappho is famous for her poems about her love for women, and the words "lesbian"
and "Sapphic" derive from her legacy. In fact, some of Sappho's poems were about
love for men.
Nonetheless, some surviving verses, such as one celebrating the goddess of beauty
and love, Aphrodite, focus on female same-sex desire. Greek society accepted and
celebrated male same-sex desire but lesbian literature was much rarer because
women's sexuality was largely ignored by Greek culture.
Education
Except in Sparta, education was usually private and so to be educated denoted social
status and wealth. Girls might be taught to read and write, but only as a means to run
a household. Women were not encouraged to read for pleasure after childhood.
Boys learned how to read and write and to become very familiar with great literature.
Athletics and music were also of major importance to the education of Greek boys. In
Sparta, education was usually military in nature, with boys living in army barracks
from the age of seven.
The most famous philosophers of Ancient Greece, such as Plato and Aristotle,
worked as private tutors to the most senior families in Greece, such as the royal
family of Macedon. As noted, it has been claimed that Aristotle, as tutor to Alexander
the Great, was the best-paid teacher in history.
Economy
The Greek landscape was suited to only small-scale agriculture and yet Greece
became by far the richest society the world had yet known.
Greece's location, however, allowed it to become a dominant force in the commercial
networks that ran across the Mediterranean and its cities grew rich.
Emigration and colonisation allowed Greek to build new trading cities with control
over some of the region's most crucial seaports and trade routes. Their shared Greek
culture meant that, over time, trade became more and more centred on Greece itself.
Greece's main exports were olive oil, wine, pottery, and metalwork. Imports included
meat, cheese, perfumes, glass, grain, and luxuries. Greek merchants had networks
throughout North Africa, Arabia, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Greeks
travelled as far as distant, obscure Britain - then at the very fringes of the known
world - to acquire tin.
Greece did not invent the concept of money (as opposed to bartered goods) but
rapidly developed coinage as means of currency. Its use probably began in the Greek
state of Lydia around 600 BCE, and began to circulate through neighbouring cities in
Asia Minor and then in Greece itself. Coins were in use in Athens by around 550 BCE.
Quickly, the Greeks understood the advantages of coins: as a medium of not only of
purchase and exchange but also as payment of salaries and fees, as a source of
revenue as foreigners changed their valuables into the local currency at an exchange
rate set by the state, as way to use and transfer metal resources, and as a means of
financial authority and prestige for the city issuing the coins.
Ancient Greece was also a shopping culture. Shopping was centred on places called
agoras. This was the centre of the public life of the city. Every city had its own agora
where merchants sold their wares imported from all over the known world. Greek
shoppers did not use fixed prices but preferred to haggle.
Athens had the largest and most famous agora, where it was not unusual to see
public philosophical debates or religious or military ceremonies among all the
shopping.
Classical Greece was the most advanced and richest economy in the world. The
average daily wage of the Greek worker, in terms of wheat, was 12 kg, three times the
average daily wage of an Egyptian worker during the Roman period.
Quick Question: What did the Ancient Greeks like to eat and drink?
The Ancient Greek diet would impress us today as very healthy. It used the plentiful
vegetables and fruit of the region, as well as produced food such as olive oil. Fish was
the main source of protein in the Greek diet. Red meat was expensive and rarely
eaten, usually when animals were slaughtered as part of religious rituals.
Bread was eaten at every meal and was the only form of utensil, used to scoop up oil,
wine and soup. It was also used as a napkin to protect clothing, but after the meal
this was thrown on the floor for dogs or slaves to eat.
Breakfast was eaten early and consisted of bread dipped in wine. Lunch was the same
along with olives, figs, cheese and dried fish. Dinner was the main meal. It consisted
of vegetables, fruit, and fish. Honey was used to create sweet bread and cakes, which
would have been eaten at dinner.
The Ancient Greeks had strict rules about excessiveness and what was appropriate.
Wine was drunk throughout the day but was watered down. To drink unwatered wine
- and also any milk or beer - was considered very uncouth, something that barbarians
would do.
Men often had dinner parties but women were not allowed to attend. These were
grand, serious affairs, with performances of music and dance and formal discussions
about politics, philosophy and morality.
Drunkenness was viewed negatively, although wine was seen as an excellent aid for
health. However, the people of Macedon were known for their heavy drinking, and
Alexander the Great was reported often very drunk. Sometimes, what the Ancient
Greeks said and what they did had some distance between them.
Sexuality
Like Ancient Egypt, the openness and apparent liberality of Ancient Greece about
sexuality, and particularly homosexuality, can be surprising.
Writers mentioned same-sex relationships often in ancient Greece and mythology
included stories on the matter without much comment on its nature or morality.
Most of the major Greek gods pursued love affairs with women and men.
However, it would be wrong to think that Ancient Greek sexuality was endlessly
liberal. In fact, the rules around sexuality were often very defined.
Also, we must remember that the concept of being homosexual or heterosexual
would have been very odd to the Ancient Greeks. All men were assumed to have
some interest in same-sex relation at some point in their life, and it was regarded as
lustful and excessive to be solely interested in the opposite sex.
This shows that sex often had a social role or public function, which again, is alien to
us. As we have seen, the most important was in the education of boys and young
men. The roots of Greek "pederasty" were very ancient, before even the emergence of
cities. In older societies, a man would take a teenage boy off to learn how to hunt or
fight, and in isolation, have a sexual relationship.
As the city-states emerged, this became part of a wider training for public life. The
relationship began with a courtship, although there would be some degree of family
approval in advance and the boy could reject these advances.
Generally, a father would arrange for a friend or admired acquaintance to begin this
relationship. Any man who failed to do this for his son would have been regarded as a
bad father!
The relationship would not begin before 12 and was largely over by about 17. After
this, the two men often had a lifelong friendship but their sexual relationship almost
always ceased.
The other area in which same-sex relationships between men were encouraged was
in the army. In some military units, for example, the Sacred Band of Thebes, sexual
relationships between soldiers were very important in order to increase the mutual
devotion for one's comrades. Sparta also encouraged homosexuality among its
military.
An ongoing consensual relationship between two adult men was often controversial.
This was not so much a condemnation of the emotions involved (men were expected
to have intense friendships) but rather that the act of performing a sexual role that
was feminine was shameful for a man. Therefore, a man who allowed himself to be
penetrated was humiliated in the eyes of society.
However, sexual relationships between adult men were known. Although subject to
some debate, the most famous is between that of Alexander the Great and his
bodyguard, Hephaestion, at whose sudden death, Alexander is said to have had a
nervous breakdown.
Despite the writings of Sappho, noted above, lesbianism was not as widely
considered in Ancient Greek society. This was almost certainly because women's
sexualities - indeed, lives - were, in general, less interesting to the Greeks.
Where all-female communities existed, lesbianism was accepted as a fact. But
married women were not free to pursue lesbian relationships in the way that their
husbands might pursue same-sex encounters.
Women's heterosexual interests were in fact seen as excessive and dangerous and in
need of control. This was in part an origin of the many restrictions on the lives of
Greek women.
Women - and sex with women - were regarded by men as necessary only for the
production of women. The great playwright Euripides summed up much of this
attitude, writing: "If only children could be got some other way without the female
sex! If women didn’t exist, human life would be rid of all its miseries."
Because women had so few cultural outlets, apart from the rare likes of Sappho,
women's views on the matter went unrecorded!
Religion
A largely homogenous Greek religion developed despite the disunity of Greece itself
and eventually spread far across the Mediterranean, into other cultures, most notably
Rome, which wholesale copied Greek mythology.
The "pantheon" of Greek gods - Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares,
Dionysus, and so forth - has been well-remembered throughout history. The
mythology of their exploits, love affairs, and enmities have inspired artists ever since.
There was a hierarchy of deities. Zeus was the chief god but not in control of the
others - or sometimes even his own emotions and desires. Poseidon ruled over the
sea, Hades over death and the Underworld, and Aphrodite controlled love. The
conflicts between the gods reflected the turbulence of human life.
Gods were not necessarily good or kind. They were subject to human desires, intense
jealousies or sexual infatuations. Zeus was a remarkably active seducer of women,
men and even animals.
Greeks believed strongly in fate and destiny. Sometimes gods tried to delay
someone's destiny, for example, when they prevented Odysseus going home, but they
could not change it.
One's own behaviour was important but so too was that the correct funeral rites had
been observed after death. Therefore, funeral preparations and rites by the family of
the deceased were extremely important.
Whilst Greeks believed in an underworld named Hades to which the dead went,
views of Hades changed a great deal over time. Sometimes it was seen as a
frightening place into which all souls passed. At other times, it was seen as divided
into a place of torment and a place of pleasure, into which different souls went.
A few remarkable souls became immortal but for many, the afterlife could be an
uncertain place and one's fate there would be a source of anxiety.
One important aspect of behaviour was something called hubris. We understand
hubris today to mean excessive pride, but the Greeks extended the concept to include
various immoral or excessive behaviours, including rape.
Excessiveness in any activity, including eating or drinking wine, was frowned upon.
Therefore, rape was viewed as wrong not so much because of its violence against or
violation of the victim but because it was an excessive behaviour and that
excessiveness was why the man should be judged.
As noted above, women performed a significant role as priests, although men were
very much involved in religious rites. Most of these were carried out at an altar either
in public or in a temple. The sacrifice of animals, most notably a ram, was seen as
particularly auspicious or useful.
Quick Question: Is it true that the Ancient Greeks killed their children?
The Ancient Greeks considered human sacrifice for religious or political reasons as
barbaric. Yet it is often stated that the Spartans, famous for their cruelty, left baby
girls on a hillside to die of exposure. However, the exposure of newborns was widely
practiced in ancient Greece, including in Athens.
In Greek custom, a woman presented a child to its father who then had to accept or
refuse it. The father alone took the decision to expose a newborn baby, and a child
could be exposed for a number of reasons, including preference for a different gender
or economic difficulties. Aristotle even recommended it for children born with
disabilities.
The father would not be questioned or criminalised, as long as he did not actually kill
the child. The mother often had no say in the matter. In leaving a child exposed to
the forces of nature, or to be killed by a wild animal, a charge of murder could be
avoided. If the baby disappeared entirely, Ancient Greeks sometimes believed that
the gods had rescued it.
It is not known what percentage of children died this way but it is believed that it was
not a small number.
Greek Culture
The wealth of their country allowed the Greek population to enjoy a comfortable
lifestyle, and to have time for leisure and cultural pursuits, significant aspects of
civilisation.
The Greek elite used their wealth to patronise artists, scholars and writers. Greek
culture had an unprecedented amount of people who were primarily involved in
teaching, philosophy and culture. The concept of the artist and the philosopher
developed rapidly in this atmosphere.
Ancient Greek culture truly changed the world. Its philosophy was focused on reason
and inquiry, a huge influence on both modern philosophy and science. Some wellknown philosophers of ancient Greece were Plato, Socrates, and others. Their
influence was profound on Roman, Islamic and eventually Renaissance European
civilisation.
Ancient Greek science advanced medicine, engineering and mathematics,
contributing the basic rules of geometry, the idea of proof, and many discoveries that
moved human knowledge forward. For example, the Greeks also made the first
suggestions in the wider region that the Sun was at the centre of the Universe.
The Ancient Greeks had the first extensive culture of literature, including poetry,
drama and history. The epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey were forms of all
three. The Ancient Greeks first differentiated the forms of drama known as comedy
and tragedy.
The art of ancient Greece has exercised an enormous influence on the culture of
many civilisations from ancient times until the present, particularly in sculpture and
architecture. Well into the 19th century, the classical tradition derived from Greece
dominated the art of the western world.
Greek Drama
Apart from history and philosophy, most Greek literature was designed to be
performed. Ancient Greek drama is one of the greatest cultural gifts from the
civilisation and continues to have enormous impact on story-telling and performance
to this day.
It is not clear when Greek tragedy emerged although its great age appears to have
begun in Athens in the sixth century. Drama was important both socially and
culturally to the Athenians and eventually large, famous competitions for writers and
actors emerged.
Perhaps surprisingly, tragedies were initially designed to be performed only once, so
that the remembering and recitation of old plays shows both their cultural impact
and the importance given to the skill of quotation.
Many plays were not available in their written form at time of performance and were
only written down years, even centuries, after their first performance.
This means that many plays would have been recorded in different forms to their
original performance. It also means that the vast majority of even the most famous
plays were eventually lost to history.
In the fifth century, Athens was rebuilt and theatre space was formalized to reflect its
prestige in Athenian. This century is regarded as the Golden Age of Greek drama.
Competitions of new plays became even more important.
Tragedy and comedy were not regarded as different parts of one form but as two
separate forms. Tragedy dealt seriously and philosophically on issues of emotion,
humanity and history. Comedy was ironic, using mockery of the powerful to teach
moral lessons.
There was a third form, called satyr plays, which were much shorter and used themes
from mythology to make sexual jokes and perform visual pranks. This was designed
to be funny and salacious, rather than the more high-brow, ironic tone of comedy.
In addition to the main actors, who could become famous, the performance had a
chorus from 12 to 15 people, who performed shorter plays or accompanied the main
performance with commentary or music. Music played on lyres and flutes were a
very important part of the experience.
Initially the performance space was called the orchestra and referred solely to the
area of performance. This term was replaced by the word theatron, which also
included the audience, recognising their importance in the experience.
Props and theatrical backdrops were an important part of the experience. Most
famous of all was the use of masks. We know very little of the masks as they were
made of reeds and other plant materials and often destroyed after performances. It is
believed that the chorus wore masks, usually the same mask, to give a ghostly,
uniform appearance as they commented on the actors on the stage.
Perhaps because of the many restrictions on women in Ancient Greek society, actors
were always men and masks could have a function of allowing a man to appear
feminine.
With the decline of Athens, drama also declined somewhat. The tendency of
Hellenistic culture to celebrate the past meant that there appears to have been much
less writing, at least which has survived.
Ancient Greece At War
In Archaic Greece, warfare was both chronic and small-scale, often amounting to
little more than squabbles between the city-states and low-level skirmishing.
The Greco-Persian Wars changed the nature of war in Ancient Greece. To fight the
enormous armies of the Achaemenid Empire was beyond any single state and forced
the cities into an alliance.
But this unity proved destructive. The military rise of Athens and Sparta led directly
to the Peloponnesian War after the Persians left. This war greatly increased the
importance of, and expenditure on, warfare. Expensive long-term sieges and naval
battles became common.
By the fourth century BCE, warfare had destabilised Greece and Persia now found it
easier to meddle and provoke new conflicts rather than to invade.
This allowed the rise of Macedon in the north. Two brilliant kings, father and son
Phillip II and Alexander the Great, used military innovation and their own genius to
bring first Greece and then most of the known world under their control.
The Techniques of Ancient Greek Warfare
The hoplite was the basis of all Greek fighting between the Greek Dark Ages and the
rise of Macedon. A hoplite was an infantryman that became a group of citizensoldiers for the Ancient Greek City-states. They were primarily armed with spears
and fought in a phalanx. Hoplite armour was extremely expensive so it was inherited
from relatives. Hoplite fighting spread throughout Greece.
Battles were fought formally, in flat, open spaces so that there was less scope for
trickery or unfamiliar fighting. Cavalry existed but were used not as a primary source
of attack but rather to protect the flanks. Initially the Ancient Greeks did not use
much missile technology.
Hoplites were organised into a phalanx, an almost impenetrable formation of men
standing shoulder-to-shoulder. The hoplites locked their shields together and
projected their spears out over their shields.
This allowed enough protection to bring large numbers of men into battle without
significant losses early on in the conflict. Advancing towards the enemy, the phalanx
would jog forward in formation.
The bravest and best men stood at the front where there was most risk. Each phalanx
would do all they could to resist breaking up and the one that succeeded almost
always won. This was the core idea of phalanx fighting.
The intended effect was shock and a short battle. Battles rarely lasted more than an
hour and casualties were light. Even the losing side expected to lose no more than
one in twenty fighters.
However, this was not a benign form of warfare. Invaders preferred to attack during
harvest time, which had two effects. By bringing the war to the enemy's land, it
reduced the chance of war in one's own agricultural land during the socially and
economically important time of harvest. Additionally, the invader attempted to
disrupt and destroy the harvest in the area they were attacking, which potentially
caused starvation and economic disaster for the enemy.
Fighting Starts to Change
Over time, strict codes of how to fight emerged which surprisingly few commanders
broke.
After centuries with almost no military change, during the Peloponnesian War,
already-existing forms of military technology, such as javelin throwing and archery,
became more common.
It is possible this reflects greater use of foreign or outer-Greek mercenaries as the
intensification of warfare suddenly accelerated during this long, intense conflict.
Many of these would have been mercenary troops, hired from outlying regions of
intensification of warfare suddenly accelerated during this long, intense conflict.
Macedonian Innovations
Unlike the southern city-states, Macedon was a larger, northern, tribal kingdom
which had to deal military with cultures beyond Greece as well as city-states like
Athens or Thebes.
It was perhaps because of this that it eventually became one of the most inventive
military cultures of Classical Greece, leading to two especially brilliant commanderkings.
Phillip II of Macedon was a talented and creative general who greatly extended his
kingdom in the mid fourth century BCE. He conquered all city states in the vicinity of
Macedon, then sought to establish his control over the southern Greek city-states,
defeating Athens and Thebes in 338 BCE.
This established a lasting Macedonian hegemony over Greece, and allowed Phillip
the resources and security to launch a war against the Persian Empire. His son,
Alexander the Great, continued this process with dazzling success.
Phillip broke with Greek military traditions and so achieved such progress. He was
able to assemble a more diverse army, including stronger cavalry. He reformed the
phalanx with lighter armour and six-metre pikes. This phalanx could effectively pin
down enemy infantry in an area, so that the cavalry and archers could cut them
down.
Philip and Alexander broke with other long-held rules of the battleground,
introducing surprise and in-the-moment innovation to wrongfoot and defeat
enemies. Alexander thus became one of the most successful generals in human
history.
Quick Question: Did the Trojan War really happen?
Homer's descriptions of the long Trojan War, with its heroes such as Achilles and
Hector, its grand conflicts over the love of a woman, have been enormous, enduring
influences on European - and indeed - world traditions of storytelling.
But is the Trojan War real history?
Greek epics and Hittite records and ancient Jewish and Egyptian records certainly
point to a long period of warfare in the wider Greek world, which ties in with the
archaeologist record of the end of Mycenae and the collapse into the Greek Dark
Ages. But whether these relate to anything Homer told us is unclear.
The Hittite evidence refers at least four major wars, from the late 15th century BCE to
the late 13th century BCE. The archaeological evidence shows that a city named
Hisarlik, sometimes identified as Troy, was destroyed several between 1300 and
1000 BCE. This would also correspond to the violent end of Mycenaean civilisation.
But did these have had anything to do with the love of Helen? Probably not: if there
was anything truth to the stories of the Trojan War, it was far more to do with
economic, social or technological change than competition over one - no matter how
beautiful - woman.
Famous Ancient Greeks
Below you will find a selection of Ancient Greeks famous in their fields.
Aeschylus - A Greek playwright, the father of the tragedy.
Aesop - Aesop's fables featured talking animals but were designed as moral stories.
Possibly a mythical character.
Alexander the Great - often called the greatest general in history, Alexander
expanded his empire across the Middle East and Persia as far as India, never once
losing a battle.
Archimedes - one of the great mathematicians and scientists in history, famous now
for shouting "Eureka!" ("I have found it!") at a moment of inspiration. He made
many discoveries and many inventions.
Aristarchus of Samos - an astronomer who first understood the Universe was
massive, that the Earth circled the sun not vice versa, and that stars were vast
distances away.
Aristophanes - playwright, considered the father of the comedy.
Aristotle - philosopher. A student of Plato, he was in turn tutor to Alexander the
Great.
Cleisthenes - the father of Athenian Democracy. He reformed the constitution to
remove tyrant or aristocratic power.
Demosthenes - a politician, considered the greatest orator of the entire Ancient
Greek world.
Draco - the harsh lawgiver of Athens, famous for his "draconian" laws that made
many offences punishable by death.
Euclid - a mathematician, "the father of geometry". His work The Elements includes
mathematical systems that remain the basis of mathematics.
Euripides - playwright, specialising in tragedy. His plays feel modern still with
realistic characters, including strong women and clever slaves.
Herodotus - A historian who chronicled the Persian Wars, Herodotus is often called
the Father of History.
Hesiod - Another historian who recorded large aspects both of Ancient Greek rural
life and Greek mythology which has helped us understand much about the society,
folklore and religion of Ancient Greece.
Hippocrates - A scientist and medical theorist, now seen as the father of Western
Medicine. Doctors still take the Hippocratic Oath to "first do no harm".
Homer - the most famous of the Greek epic poets credited with the epic poems the
Iliad and the Odyssey. Now historians dispute whether Homer was a real historical
character.
Leonidas - the most famous and successful king of Sparta. The finest expression of
the highly militarised Spartan culture, Leonidas scored brilliant victories over the
invading Persians.
Pericles - The leader of Athens during its Golden Age. Although he ultimately
undermined democracy, he also led great building projects in Athens that still
survive today in the city's last phase of political glory.
Pindar - the greatest of the nine lyric poets of Ancient Greece, best known today for
his odes.
Plato - one of the three great philosophers of Ancient Greece, and the most
theoretical and intellectual.
Pythagoras - A scientist who created Pythagoras's Theorem still used today in much
of geometry.
Sappho - One of the great lyric poets, she wrote romantic poetry that was very
popular in her day. One of the few women whose name is recognisable from Ancient
Greek civilisation, which shows a great deal about the position of women in its
society.
Socrates - The first of the three great Greek Philosophers, considered by many to be
the founder of Western philosophy.
Solon - an Athenian politician who devised the founding principles of democracy.
Sophocles - probably the most popular playwright in Ancient Greece, with over 100
plays, winning many public writing competitions.
Thucydides - A great historian known for his exacting research into the wars between
Athens and Sparta.
A Quick Timeline of Ancient Greece
All dates BCE
800 End of the Greek Dark Ages
776 Traditional date for the first historic Olympic games
735 Macedon established, the northernmost Greek state
734 First colonists go to Italy
621 Draco, Athenian lawgiver, issues code of laws, with many crimes punishable by
death The word "draconian" comes from his name
600 Sappho, Greek poetess, lives on Lesbos
569 Pythagoras is born
508 The tyrant Hippias is forced to leave Athens by the reformer Cleisthenes
507 Cleisthenes introduces early democracy
490 Battle of Marathon defeats the Persians who begin a long period of invasion
480 Leonidas, Spartan, sacrifices 300 Spartan soldiers at the Battle of Thermopylae
480 Battle of Salamis: Persians defeated
457 Pericles, Athenian statesman, radically extends democracy
449 Herodotus, the first true historian, writes History of Greco-Persian War from
490–479
441 Euripides, Greek playwright, wins Athenian prize
435 Phidias, Greek sculptor, completes statue of Zeus at Elis, one of the seven
wonders of the world
432 End of "Golden Age" of Athens under Pericles
431 Sparta commanded by King Archidamus II prepares to destroy Athens thus
starting the Peloponnesian War
429 Hippocrates, Greek doctor, writes that diseases have a physical cause
428 Plato born
411 Democracy ends in Athens
404 Athens surrenders, ending Peloponnesian War. Athens never recovers its power.
Sparta dominates for several decades
399 Socrates, Greek philosopher, condemned to death for corrupting youth
347 Plato dies
342 Aristotle begins teaching Alexander the Great
336 Alexander succeeds father his father Philip II
332 Alexander conquers Egypt and then invades Persia
327 Alexander invades northern India
323 King Alexander dies, and his generals carve up his empire, creating the
Hellenistic world of Greek-ruled empires across Africa and the Middle East
280–275 Pyrrhic War
265 Archimedes develops the Archimedes screw, specific gravity, and theorises the
centre of gravity
200–196 Second Macedonian War leads to entry of Rome directly into Greek affairs
146 Rome ends Greek independence